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Sound Devices Serves Up Stellar Audio at Pixel Corps

Production Company Relies On 788T and USBPre 2 to Produce High-Quality Videos and Train Thousands in Video Production

ORLANDO, FL, JUNE 16, 2011 — With roughly 2,000 members in 40 different countries, Pixel Corps serves as a guild for content creators and trains professionals globally on key aspects of production. In the fast-paced world of video production —from compositing to matchmoving to rotoscoping, Pixel Corps runs the gamut in production and training. A significant portion of the company's business comes from producing Internet videos for corporations, as well as creating podcasts and voiceovers. In order to accomplish its many projects, Pixel Corps employs Sound Devices® 788T® Multi-Track Digital Audio Recorder and USBPre 2® Microphone Interface for all of the company's audio needs.

“On our projects that require audio, we always use a Sound Devices component,” explains Alex Lindsay, Pixel Corps founder and chief architect, a 20-year veteran of computer graphics and video production. “Audio is a significant part of the viewing experience of videos on the Internet — because Web videos can often be shaky and unsatisfying to watch. With Sound Devices, we know we are always going to get high-quality, reliable audio.”

Lindsay relies heavily on the 788T for various projects at Pixel Corps. This powerful eight-input, 12-track digital audio recorder is designed for sound engineers mixing on location for films, documentaries, episodic television and reality TV. Among a host of impressive features, the 788T's high-quality limiters are what first drew Lindsay to the product. “The 788T gives us a really warm sound and it has great limiters,” he says. “With other mixers, we would stay far from peaking because they couldn't handle it very well. But with Sound Devices, we run a little bit closer, which means we have more of a separation between our subject sound and our noise floor. Other companies haven't prioritized their limiters as much as Sound Devices has, which is what I love most about this product.”

The 788T's eight full-featured inputs ensure superb audio quality, accept either microphone or line-level signals, provide 48 V phantom power for condenser microphones, offer peak limiters for microphone inputs and feature fully adjustable high-pass filters, all in a compact package. These are features that Lindsay says align perfectly with his needs at Pixel Corps. He is also continually impressed with the 788T's stellar routing capabilities.

“I recall during a project in Japan, we had video with both English and Japanese translators speaking that had to be routed out to two different live Internet streams,” he explains. “Not only did the 788T record great sound, but it allowed us to re-route the audio so that it could be split into other ways, essentially letting us redefine channels. In fact, the 788T is so versatile, it gives you all these different ways to manage your sound when you're on set. You can do that with a big mixer, too — but it doesn't have the limiters and the same quality of pre-amps as the 788T.”

For podcasts and voiceover work at Pixel Corps, Lindsay accesses Sound Devices' powerful USBPre 2 microphone interface for its efficiency and reliability. The USBPre 2 is ideal for a broad range of applications including voiceover recording, reference playback and monitoring, as well as test and measurement. It functions as a two-channel microphone preamplifier with analog, digital and headphone outputs. “I refer to it as my Swiss army knife because it gives me so many options for connecting audio to my computer,” says Lindsay. “Throughout my career I have used various types of USB interfaces, and none produce the same high-quality sound as the USBPre 2. In my opinion, it is the only true professional USB interface on the market today.”

The class-compliant, plug-and-play device accepts mic level, line level, consumer line level and SPDIF digital (coaxial or TOSLINK) inputs. Its microphone preamplifiers have selectable analog limiters, high-pass filters, 48 V phantom power and high-resolution LED meters. Further underscoring its efficiency, the USBPre 2 draws its power solely from the computer's USB port, with no additional power source required. It also includes a consumer RCA-type output for connection to unbalanced inputs. Its headphone amplifier easily drives full-sized headphones with extensive, clean gain.

With membership increasing at a steady pace at Pixel Corps, Lindsay has no plans to switch to a different audio brand for his production work. “Sound Devices products are built really solidly and the company continually updates the associated software,” he says, “I know we will continue to use them on all our future projects.”